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About us

What we do

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) helps create successful communities by making more homes and business premises available to the residents and businesses who need them. We also regulate social housing providers in England.

We work locally in individual communities to help meet local priorities.

We invest mostly in building new homes, but also in creating employment floorspace and other community facilities, in cities, towns and villages across the country. The homes we fund include affordable homes for rent and sale, and homes for rent or sale at market prices. Our investment helps build around half of all new homes built in England each year. It also helps increase local growth by creating jobs and supporting businesses.

We own public land, which we sell to house builders and others. This is one of the ways in which we overcome barriers to development and help increase the speed with which house builders can build new homes.

We also regulate social housing providers (mostly housing associations) in England. We do this to protect social housing assets - making sure that social homes remain available to tenants, and that the taxpayers’ investment in those homes is protected.

Who we are

We’re the government’s housing, land and regeneration agency, and the regulator of social housing providers in England.

Around 900 people work at the HCA in offices across England.

Our responsibilities

We’re responsible for:

increasing the number of new homes that are built in England, including affordable homes and homes for market sale or rent

improving existing affordable homes and bringing empty homes back into use as affordable housing

increasing the supply of public land and speeding up the rate that it can be built on

regulating social housing providers to make sure that they’re well managed and financially secure, so maintaining investor confidence in the affordable housing sector and protecting homes for tenants

helping to stimulate local economic growth by using our land and investment, and attracting private sector investment in local areas